Crash Into You
by GellsBells
Summary: Future AU - Betty and Jughead are involved in a multi vehicle collision and Jughead is taken to hospital with a broken leg from the accident. Jughead has reluctantly just moved to Riverdale and Betty, guilty for her role in the collision offers to help him out at home while he recovers.


_**Author's Note: This is yet another AU idea that would not leave my head until I**_ commited _ **it to writing. I am still working on my other WIPs if you are waiting on updates on those but this provides a nice break from the heavier themes in those stories. I am hoping to keep this one relatively angst free and just fluffy and romantic. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think**_ in _ **the reviews.**_

 **Chapter** 1 : **A Sunday Drive**

Jughead's whole body felt like it was throbbing. He tried to get his eyes to stay open for more than a brief moment but the light coming in through the windscreen was blinding. Each breath sent a shock of pain through his body and made him feel faint. He could hear the drone of a car horn and realised that it was coming from his vehicle. He thought that he should probably try and scream for help. He should try to make it known that he was still here. He went to make a sound and his throat felt hoarse and dry. He opened his eyes to see smoke wafting in front of him and clouding his vision and he remembered screaming as his car had hurtled towards the lamp post that his bonnet was now wrapped around.

He had been waiting in traffic. Just another thing to hate about this town he had been forced to move to. He had been tapping the wheel impatiently as he heard the bangs behind him and before he knew it he was hurtling into the intersection. He tried to correct the car which was heading into the intersection now and instead felt the car swerve at the corrective action. He desperately tried to regain control but found the car unresponsive. The steering wheel useless in front of him.

He groaned as he attempted to move his body once more. He couldn't move his lower body and he immediately thought the worse. He was paralysed. He must be. No, wait, he could feel the pain coursing through his legs, both of them. He could feel that. He could faintly hear a woman's voice near him. She seemed to be trying to talk to him, calling him Sir telling him not to move and he could only manage a groan in response.

He heard her voice louder now as he realised she must be shouting. She was shouting for someone to call an ambulance. He thanked God or whatever higher power he believed in now that he was still alive as he felt the warm touch of skin across his cheek and a flash of golden blonde hair before he closed his eyes again and this time let himself drift away.

* * *

Betty couldn't believe the traffic in front of her for a Sunday. This was usually her driving time. She would take her little yellow car and go into town, usually the farmers market. It was her routine which she was sure Ronnie and Kevin had joked about on more than one occasion how she was like a little old lady sometimes. Old before her time. She would just poke out her tongue at them and call them immature. Betty liked routine. She enjoyed having these moments to herself, without the pressures of the outside world. Or the expectations of others.

But it seemed that the world had decided to throw a spanner in the works of her quiet Sunday at the local farmers market by creating bumper to bumper traffic. Betty took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again allowing a sense of calm to wash over her. She smiled to herself as she turned up her radio and wound her window down letting the gentle breeze pass over her skin as she reached up to take out the hair tie that had secured her golden locks away from her face. The strands now free moved across her face briefly before fanning out behind her. She already felt that her Sunday was getting back on track.

The world seemed to agree with her as the traffic finally started to move again. Betty moved her foot from the brake to the accelerator and began to move when she heard a crash from behind her. She looked in her rear view to see what had happened when she felt the lurch of her car moving forward as it was struck from behind. She tried to move her foot back to the brake quickly but the momentum of her vehicle starting to move paired with the impact from behind had her hurtling towards the moving car in front of her. She screamed out as she hit them. She had expected the vehicle to move into the one in front of it but instead it swerved moving towards the sidewalk as it started to spin.

She stopped her car in the middle of the intersection as she watched in horror as the car spun out of control slamming head first to the lamp post. She slammed her car into park as she made her way towards the vehicle. The tell tale long honk of the car's horn told her that the driver was leaning over. She looked into the car and saw that there was only one person in the vehicle. A man who seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. She pulled at the door handle and was grateful that he did not have his door locked.

He was groaning. Attempting to move himself and Betty placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to still his movements.

"Please try not to move, Sir." Betty couldn't help the way her tone immediately shifted to her 'work voice'. "You need to stay still until the ambulance gets here." She turned to look around her noticing that a few other people had gotten out of their cars. Some from the other vehicles that had collided and some that had just observed the crash. She shouted out to one of them to call an ambulance, before returning her attention to the driver. He was about her age she noted, which was good he had a better chance at surviving than someone older. She couldn't see any head trauma and the airbag had gone off leaving a few cuts around his face which was still leaning into the white material. His chest looked okay but his legs were a completely different story. Betty already knew the right one was broken. Legs were not made to bend at that angle.

She heard him groan out again and she placed herself closer to him to try and hear him better, but she couldn't make out his words if they were even that. His breathing was becoming more laboured and his eyes were briefly opening before closing again. She found herself reaching out to brush her hand against his cheek before she knew what she was doing. She reasoned that she was offering comfort to someone in pain, just like she would for any of her patients as he lost consciousness again.

* * *

Jughead blinked again as he took in his surroundings. He was clearly in a hospital judging by the monitor next to him, the bed and the stark whiteness of the walls. He went to move himself up his bed and stopped when he felt a jolt of pain in his right leg. He looked down to see that his leg was in plaster. He let his head fall back against his pillow as he let out a curse. Typical, less than a week in this town and he had completely fucked it up already.

He looked over to his side table searching for his phone. He had to call Archie try to get him to save him from this place it obviously was not going to work out. He could see it just on the edge, if he could just shift his body a little then he would be able to grab it. His fingers strained to grasp the sleek black case but he pulled himself and that same jolt of pain caused him to lose his grasp sending the phone crashing into the floor with a bang and him letting out another curse word.

"What the-" His attention was now drawn to the blonde woman who was sitting on the seat across the room, a book which had been resting on her lap was now discarded on the floor. "Are you okay?" She asked as she crossed the room to look at him with concern as she leant down to his bedside her eyes carefully watching the monitor next to him. Jughead's eyes watched her carefully as she nodded to herself seemingly satisfied with the numbers as she returned her concerned gaze towards him and offered a kind smile.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" She wasn't dressed in a uniform so she couldn't be one of the hospital staff, and he would have remembered this girl if he had met her before.

"Oh my gosh." She exclaimed as a look of embarrassment crossed her face as she seemed to realise she had forgotten her manners. She offered her hand to him and he took it hesitantly. Somewhat put off by her disposition. "I'm Betty Cooper. I'm kind of the person who crashed into you." Right that makes sense.

* * *

She hadn't meant to fall asleep in the chair next to his bedside. She had underestimated how much the day had taken out of her. To be honest with herself she had been mainly running on adrenaline the whole time. The ambulance had come eventually as she was still clutching his hand, whispering to him that it was going to be okay while she continued to monitor his breathing and his pulse. She was too afraid to move him until they arrived and could attach the neck brace to keep him still.

She just hoped that a broken leg was the most he had to worry about. She had ridden in the ambulance with him to the hospital, no-one questioning her when she said she knew him. Betty knew how scary waking up after an accident like that could be, in the hospital or in the ambulance and she didn't want anyone to have to go through that alone. Not even a complete stranger.

The doctors had let her know that he would be okay, a broken leg and some scratches and bruising and she found herself breathing a sigh of relief. They had asked her if he had any family here in town and she had admitted that she didn't know. He was from out of town, Toledo to be exact and he had no next of kin listed on the health register the nurse attending had further explained. Betty had decided then that she would stay at least until he woke up. She had continued to extend her stay already. First it had been until he got in the ambulance, then it had been until he got to the hospital, now it was until he woke up. She felt guilty. She had been the one to send him into that post. The reason he was now laid in bed with his broken leg, alone in a strange town.

She had woken abruptly at the sound of the crash filling the room and found him clasping for something on the side table. She made her way over to his bedside, quickly looking at his vitals noticing a small spike in heart rate which could be attributed to shock.

Her eyes shifted to meet his as his voice brought her attention back to him.

"Oh My Gosh." She scolded herself for not introducing herself. She offered her hand out to him in a practiced gesture and he paused before giving it a sharp shake.

"I'm Betty Cooper. I'm kind of the person who crashed into you." And as the words left her mouth Betty already knew that she would be offering to stay a little longer.


End file.
